The Quest of Erebor

This story depends for its full understanding on the
narrative given in Appendix A (III, Durin's Folk) to The
Lord of the Rings, of which this is an outline:
>>>

The Dwarves Thrór and his son Thráin
(together with Thráin's son
Thorin, afterwards called Oakenshield) escaped from the Lonely
Mountain (Erebor) by a secret door when the dragon Smaug
descended upon it. Thrór returned to
Moria, after giving to Thráin the last of the Seven
Rings of the Dwarves, and was killed there by the Orc
Azog, who branded his name on Thrór's brow. It was
this that led to the War of the Dwarves and the
Orcs, which ended in the Great Battle of Azanulbizar
(Nanduhirion) before the East-gate of Moria in the year 2799.
Afterwards Thráin and Thorin Oakenshield dwelt in the Ered
Luin, but in the year 2841 Thráin set out from there to
return to the Lonely Mountain. While wandering in the lands
east of Anduin he was captured and imprisoned in Dol
Guldur, where the ring was taken from him. In 2850 Gandalf entered
Dol Guldur and discovered that its master was indeed
Sauron; and there he came upon Thráin before he died.
>>>

There is more than one version of "The Quest of Erebor,"
as is explained in an Appendix following the text, where
also substantial extracts from an earlier version are given.
>>>

I have not found any writing preceding the opening words of the
present text ("He would say no more that day"). The "He" of the
opening sentence is Gandalf, "we" are Frodo, Peregrin, Meriadoc,
and Gimli, and "I" is Frodo, the recorder of the conversation;
the scene is a house in Minas Tirith, after the coronation of
King Elessar (see p. 343).
>>>

He would say no more that day. But later we brought the
matter again, and he told us the whole strange story; how
he came to arrange the journey to Erebor, why he thought of
Bilbo, and how he persuaded the proud Thorin Oakenshield to
take him into his company. I cannot remember all the tale
now, but we gathered that to begin with Gandalf was thinking
only of the defence of the West against the Shadow.
>>>

"I was very troubled at that time," he said,
"for Saruman was hindering all my plans. I knew
that Sauron had arisen again and would soon declare
himself, and I knew that he was preparing for a great
war. How would he begin? Would he try first to re-occupy
Mordor, or would he first attack the chief strongholds of his
enemies? I thought then, and I am sure now, that to attack
Lorien and Rivendell, as soon as he was strong enough was his
original plan. It would have been a much better plan for him,
and much worse for us.
>>>

"You may think that Rivendell was out of his reach, but I did not
think so. The state of things in the North was very bad. The Kingdom
under the Mountain and the strong Men of Dale were no more. To
resist any force that Sauron might send to regain the northern
passes in the mountains and the old lands of Angmar there were
only the Dwarves of the Iron Hills, and behind them lay a
desolation and a Dragon. The Dragon Sauron might use with terrible
effect. Often I said to myself: "I must find some means of dealing
with Smaug. But a direct stroke against Dol Guldur is needed still
more. We must disturb Sauron's plans. I must make the Council see that.'
>>>

"Those were my dark thoughts as I jogged along the road.
I was tired, and I was going to the Shire for a short rest, after
being away from it for more than twenty years. I thought that if I
put them out of my mind for a while I might perhaps find some
way of dealing with these troubles. And so I did indeed, though I
was not allowed to put them out of my mind.
>>>

"For just as I was nearing Bree I was overtaken by Thorin
Oakenshield,1
who lived then in exile beyond the north-western
borders of the Shire. To my surprise he spoke to me; and it was
at that moment that the tide began to turn.
>>>

"He was troubled too, so troubled that he actually asked
for my advice. So I went with him to his halls in the Blue
Mountains, and I listened to his long tale. I soon understood that
his heart was hot with brooding on his wrongs, and the loss of
the treasure of his forefathers, and burdened too with the duty of
revenge upon Smaug that he bad inherited. Dwarves take such
duties very seriously.
>>>

"I promised to help him if I could. I was as eager as he
was to see the end of Smaug, but Thorin was all for plans of
battle and war, as if he were really King Thorin the Second, and
I could see no hope in that. So I left him and went off to the
Shire, and picked up the threads of news. It was a strange
business. I did no more than follow the lead of 'chance,' and
made many mistakes on the way.
>>>

Somehow I had been attracted by Bilbo long before, as a
child, and a young hobbit: he had not quite come of age when I
had last seen him. He had stayed in my mind ever since, with his
eagerness and his bright eyes, and his love of tales, and his
questions about the wide world outside the Shire. As soon as I
entered the Shire I heard news of him. He was getting talked
about, it seemed. Both his parents had died early for Shire-folk,
at about eighty; and he had never married. He was already
growing a bit queer, they said, and went off for days by himself.
He could be seen talking to strangers, even Dwarves.
>>>

"Even Dwarves!' Suddenly in my mind these three things
came together: the great Dragon with his lust, and his keen
hearing and scent; the sturdy heavy-booted Dwarves with their
old burning grudge; and the quick, soft-footed Hobbit, sick at
heart (I guessed) for a sight of the wide world. I laughed at
myself; but I went off at once to have a look at Bilbo, to see
what twenty years bad done to him, and whether he was as
promising as gossip seemed to make out. But be was not at
home. They shook their heads in Hobbiton when I asked after
him. 'Off again,' said one Hobbit. It was Holman, the gardener, I
believe.2
'Off again. He'll go right off one of these days, if he
isn't careful. Why, I asked him where he was going, and when he
would be back, and I don't know he says; and then he looks at
me queerly. It depends if I meet any, Holman, he says. It's the
Elves New Year tomorrow!3
A pity, and him so kind a body.
You wouldn't find a better from the Downs to the River.'

"Better and better!' I thought. 'I think I shall risk it.' Time
was getting short. I had to be with the White Council in August
at the latest, or Saruman would have his way and nothing would
be done. And quite apart from greater matters, that might prove
fatal to the quest: the power in Dol Guldur would not leave any
attempt on Erebor unhindered, unless he had something else to
deal with.

"So I rode off back to Thorin in haste, to tackle the
difficult task of persuading him to put aside his lofty designs and
go secretly - and take Bilbo with him. Without seeing Bilbo first.
It was a mistake, and nearly proved disastrous. For Bilbo had
changed, of course. At least, he was getting rather greedy and
fat, and his old desires had dwindled down to a sort of private
dream. Nothing could have been more dismaying than to find it
actually in danger of coming true! He was altogether bewildered,
and made a complete fool of himself. Thorin would have left in a
rage, but for another strange chance, which I will mention in a
moment.

"But you know how things went, at any rate as Bilbo saw
them. The story would sound rather different, if I had written it.
For one thing he did not realize at all how fatuous the Dwarves
thought him, nor how angry they were with me. Thorin was
much more indignant and contemptuous than he perceived He
was indeed contemptuous from the beginning, and thought then
that I had planned the whole affair simply so as to make a mock
of him. It was only the map and the key that saved the situation.

"But I had not thought of them for years. It was not until I
got to the Shire and had time to reflect on Thorin's tale that I
suddenly remembered the strange chance that had put them in my
hands; and it began now to look less like chance. I remembered a
dangerous journey of mine, ninety-one years before, when I had
entered Dol Guldur in disguise, and had found there an unhappy
Dwarf dying in the pits. I had no idea who he was. He had a map
that had belonged to Durin's folk in Moria and a key that seemed
to go with it, though he was too far gone to explain it. And he
said that he had possessed a great Ring.

"Nearly all his ravings were of that. The last of the Seven
he said over and over again. But all these things he might have
come by in many ways. He might have been a messenger caught
as he fled, or even a thief trapped by a greater thief. But he gave
the map and the key to me. 'For my son,' he said; and then he
died, and soon after I escaped myself. I stowed the things away,
and by some warning of my heart I kept them always with me,
safe, but soon almost forgotten. I had other business in Dol
Guldur more important and perilous than all the treasure of
Erebor.

"Now I remembered it all again, and it seemed clear that I
had heard the last words of Thráin the
Second,4 though he did
not name himself or his son; and Thorin, of course, did not know
what had become of his father, nor did he even mention the last
of the Seven Rings.' I had the plan and the key of the secret
entrance to Erebor, by which Thrór and Thráin escaped,
according to Thorin's tale. And I had kept them, though without
any design of my own, until the moment when they would prove
most useful.

"Fortunately, I did not make any mistake in my use of
them. I kept them up my sleeve, as you say in the Shire, until
things looked quite hopeless. As soon as Thorin saw them he
really made up his mind to follow my plan, as far as a secret
expedition went at any rate. Whatever he thought of Bilbo he
would have set out himself. The existence of a secret door, only
discoverable by Dwarves, made it seem at least possible to find
out something of the Dragon's doings, perhaps even to recover
some gold, or some heirloom to ease his heart's longings.

"But that was not enough for me. I knew in my heart that
Bilbo must go with him, or the whole quest would be a failure -
or, as I should say now, the far more important events by the
way would not come to pass. So I had still to persuade Thorin to
take him. There were many difficulties on the road afterwards,
but for me this was the most difficult part of the whole affair.
Though I argued with him far into the night after Bilbo had
retired, it was not finally settled until early the next morning.
"Thorin was contemptuous and suspicious. 'He is soft,' he
snorted. 'Soft as the mud of his Shire, and silly. His mother died
too soon. You are playing some crooked game of your own,
Master Gandalf. I am sure that you have other purposes than
helping me.

"'You are quite right,' I said. 'If I had no other purposes, I
should not be helping you at all. Great as your affairs may seem
to you, they are only a small strand in the great web. I am
concerned with many strands. But that should make my advice
more weighty, not less.' I spoke at last with great heat. 'Listen to
me, Thorin Oakenshield !' I said. 'If this hobbit goes with you,
you will succeed. If not, you will fail. A foresight is on me, aid I
am warning you.'

"'I know your fame,' Thorin answered. 'I hope it is
merited. But this foolish business of your Hobbit makes me
wonder whether it is foresight that is on you, and you are not
crazed rather than foreseeing. So many cares may have
disordered your wits.'

"'They have certainly been enough to do so,' I said. 'And
among them I find most exasperating a proud Dwarf who seeks
advice from me (without claim on me that I know of), and then
rewards me with insolence. Go your own ways, Thorin
Oakenshield, if you will. But if you flout my advice, you will
walk to disaster. And you will get neither counsel nor aid from
me again until the Shadow falls on you. And curb your pride and
your greed, or you will fall at the end of whatever path you take,
though your hands be full of gold.'

"He blenched a little at that; but his eyes smouldered. 'Do
tot threaten me!' he said. 'I will use my own judgement in this
matter, as in all that concerns me.'

"'Do so then!' I said. 'I can say no more-unless it is this: I
do not give my love or trust lightly, Thorin; but I am fond of this
Hobbit, and wish him well. Treat him well, and you shall have
my friendship to the end of your days.'

"I said that without hope of persuading him; but I could
have said nothing better. Dwarves understand devotion to friends
and gratitude to those who help them. 'Very well,' Thorin said at
last after a silence. 'He shall set out with my company, if he
dares (which I doubt). But if you insist on burdening me with
him, you must come too and look after your darling.'

"'Good!' I answered. 'I will come, and stay with you as
long as I can: at least until you have discovered his worth.' It
proved well in the end, but at the time I was troubled, for I had
the urgent matter of the White Council on my hands.

"So it was that the Quest of Erebor set out. I do not
suppose that when it started Thorin had any real hope of
destroying Smaug. There was no hope. Yet it happened. But
alas! Thorin did not live to enjoy his triumph or his treasure.
Pride and greed overcame him in spite of my warning."

"But surely," I said, "he might have fallen in battle
anyway? There would have been an attack of Orcs, however
generous Thorin had been with his treasure."

"That is true," said Gandalf. "Poor Thorin! He was a great
Dwarf of a great House, whatever his faults; and though he fell
at the end of the journey, it was largely due to him that the
Kingdom under the Mountain was restored, as I desired. But
Dain Ironfoot was a worthy successor. And now we hear that he
fell fighting before Erebor again, even while we fought here. I
should call it a heavy loss, if it was not a wonder rather that in
his great age5
he could still wield his axe as mightily as they say
he did, standing over the body of King Brand before the Gate of
Erebor until the darkness fell.

"It might all have gone very differently indeed. 'The main
attack was diverted southwards, it is true; and yet even so with
his farstretched right hand Sauron could have done terrible harm
in the North, while he defended Condor, if King Brand and King
Dain had not stood in his path. When you think of the great
Battle of Pelennor, do not forget the Battle of Dale. Think of
what might have been. Dragon-fire and savage swords in
Eriador! There might be no Queen in Condor. We might now
only hope to return from the victory here to ruin and ash. But
that has been averted - because I met Thorin Oakenshield one
evening on the edge of spring not far from Bree. A chance-meeting,
as we say in Middle-earth."

NOTES

The meeting of Gandalf with Thorin is related also in
Appendix A (III) to The Lord of the Rings, and there the date
is given: 15 March, 2941. There is the slight difference
between the two accounts that in Appendix A the meeting took
place in the inn at Bree and not on the road. Gandalf had last
visited the Shire twenty years before, thus in 2921, when Bilbo
was thirty-one: Gandalf says later that he had not quite come
of age [thirty-three] when he last saw him.

Holman the gardener: Holman Greenhand, to whom Hamfast
Gamgee (Sam's father, the Gaffer) was apprenticed: The
Fellowship of the Ring I 1, and Appendix C.

The Elvish solar year (loa) began with the day called yestarë,
which was the day before the first day of tuilë (Spring); and in
the Calendar of Imladris yestarë "corresponded more or less
with Shire April 6." (The Lord of the Rings, Appendix D.)

Thráin the Second: Thráin the First, Thorin's distant ancestor,
escaped from Moria in the year 1981 and became the first
King under the Mountain. (The Lord of the Rings, Appendix A (III).)

Dáin II Ironfoot was born in the year 2767; at the Battle of
Azanulbizar (Nanduhirion) in 2799 he slew before the East-gate
of Moria the great Orc Azog, and so avenged Thrór,
Thorin's grandfather. He died in the Battle of Dale in 3019.
(The Lord of the Rings, Appendices A (III) and B.) Freda
learnt from Glóin at Rivendell that "Dáin was still King under
the Mountain, and was now old (having passed his two
hundred and fiftieth year), venerable, and fabulously rich."
(The Fellowship of the Ring II 1.)

APPENDIX

Note on the texts of "The Quest of Erebor"

The textual situation in this piece is complex and hard to
unravel. The earliest version is a complete but rough and
much-emended manuscript, which I will here call A; it bears
the title "The History of Gandalf's Dealings with Thráin and
Thorin Oakenshield." From this a typescript, B, was made,
with a great deal of further alteration, though mostly of a very
minor kind. This is entitled "The Quest of Erebor," and also
"Gandalf's Account of how he came to arrange the Expedition
to Erebor and send Bilbo with the Dwarves." Some extensive
extracts from the typescript tea are given below.

In addition to A and B ("the earlier version"), there is
another manuscript, C, untitled, which tells the story in a
more economical tightly-constructed form, omitting a good
deal from the first version and introducing some new
elements, but also (particularly in the latter part largely
retaining the original writing. It seems to me to be quite
certain that C is later than B, and C is the version that has
been given above, although some writing has apparently been
lost from the beginning, setting the scene in Minas Tirith for
Gandalf's recollections.

The opening paragraphs of B (given below) are almost
identical with a passage in Appendix&nbap;A (III, Durin's Folk) to
The Lord of the Rings, and obviously depend on the narrative
concerning Thrór and Thráin that precedes them in Appendix&nbap;A;
while the ending of "The Quest of Erebor" is also found in
almost exactly the same words in Appendix A (III), here again
in the mouth of Gandalf, speaking to Frodo and Gimli in
Minas Tirith. In view of the letter cited in the Introduction
(p. 11) it is clear that my father wrote "The Quest of Erebor" to
stand as a part of the narrative of Durin's Folk in Appendix A.

Extracts from the earlier version

The typescript B of the earlier version begins thus:

So Thorin Oakenshield became the Heir of Durin, but an
heir without hope. At the sack of Erebor he had been too young
to bear arms, but at Azanulbizar he had fought in the van of the
assault; and when Thráin was lost he was ninety-five, a great
Dwarf of proud bearing. He had no Ring, and (for that reason
maybe) he seemed content to remain in Eriador. There he
laboured long, and gained such wealth as he could; and his
people were increased by many of the wandering Folk of Durin
that heard of his dwelling and came to him. Now they had fair
halls in the mountains, and store of goods and their days did not
seem so hard, though in their songs they spoke ever of the Lonely
Mountain far away, and the treasure and the bliss of the Great
Hall in the light of the Arkenstone.

The years lengthened. The embers in the heart of Thorin
grew hot again, as he brooded on the wrongs of his House and of
the vengeance upon the Dragon that was bequeathed to him. He
thought of weapons and armies and alliances, as his great
hammer rang in the forge; but the armies were dispersed and the
alliances broken and the axes of his people were few; and a great
anger without hope burned him, as he smote the red iron on the
anvil.

Gandalf had not yet played any part in the fortunes of
Durin's House. He had not had many dealings with the Dwarves;
though he was a friend to those of good will, and liked well the
exiles of Durin's Folk who lived in the West. But on a time it
chanced that he was passing through Eriador (going to the Shire,
which he had not seen for some years) when he fell in with
Thorin Oakenshield, and they talked together on the road, and
rested for the night at Bree.

In the morning Thorin said to Gandalf: "I have much on
my mind, and they say you are wise and know more than most of
what goes on in the world. Will you come home with me and
hear me, and give me your counsel?"

To this Gandalf agreed, and when they came to Thorin's
Hall he sat long with him and heard all the tale of his wrongs.

From this meeting there followed many deeds and events
of great moment: indeed the finding of the One Ring, and its
coming to the Shire, and the choosing of the Ringbearer. Many
therefore have supposed that Gandalf foresaw all these things,
and chose his time for the meeting with Thorin. Yet we believe
that it was not so. For in his tale of the War of the Ring Frodo
the Ringbearer left a record of Gandalf's words on this very
point. This is what he wrote:

In place of the words "This is what he wrote" A, the earliest
manuscript, has: "That passage was omitted from the tale,
since it seemed long, but most of it we now set out here."

After the crowning we stayed in a fair house in Minas
Tirith with Gandalf, and he was very merry, and though we
asked him questions about all that came into our minds his
patience seemed as endless as his knowledge. I cannot now recall
most of the things that he told us; often we did not understand
them. But I remember this conversation very clearly. Gimli was
there with us, and he said to Peregrin: "There is a thing I must do
one of these days: I must visit that Shire of
yours.1
Not to see more Hobbits! I doubt if I could learn anything about them that I
do not know already. But no Dwarf of the House of Durin could
fail to look with wonder on that land. Did not the recovery of the
Kingship under the Mountain, and the fall of Smaug, begin
there? Not to mention the end of Barad-dûr, though both were
strangely woven together. Strangely, very strangely," he said,
and paused.

Then looking hard at Gandalf he went on: "But who wove
the web? I do not think I have ever considered that before. Did
you plan all this then, Gandalf? If not, why did you lead Thorin
Oakenshield to such an unlikely door? To find the Ring and
bring it far away into the West for hiding, and then to choose the
Ringbearer - and to restore the Mountain Kingdom as a mere
deed by the way: was not that your design?"

Gandalf did not answer at once. He stood up, and looked
out of the window, west, seawards; and the sun was then setting,
and a glow was in his face. He stood so a long while silent. But
at last he turned to Gimli and said: "I do not know the answer.
For I have changed since those days, and I am no longer
trammelled by the burden of Middle-earth as I was then. In those
days I should have answered you with words like those I used to
Frodo, only last year in the spring. Only last year! But such
measures are meaningless. In that far distant time I said to a
small and frightened Hobbit: Bilbo was meant to find the Ring,
and not by its maker, and you therefore were meant to bear it.
And I might have added: and I was meant guide you both to
those points.

"To do that I used in my waking mind only such means as
were allowed to me, doing what lay to my hand according to
such reasons as I had. But what I knew in my heart, or knew
before I stepped on these grey shores: that is another matter.
Olórin I was in the West that is forgotten, and only to those who
are there shall I speak openly."

A has here: "and only to those who are there (or who may,
perhaps return thither with me) shall I speak more openly."

Then I said: "I understand you a little better now, Gandalf,
than I did before. Though I suppose that, whether meant or not,
Bilbo might have refused to leave home, and so might I. You
could not compel us. You were not even allowed to try. But I am
still curious to know why you did what you did, as you were
then, an old grey man as you seemed."

Gandalf then explained to them his doubts at that time
concerning Sauron's first move, and his fears for Lórien and
Rivendell (cf. p. 336). In this version, after saying that a direct
stroke against Sauron was even more urgent than the question
of Smaug, he went on:

"That is why, to jump forward, I went off as soon as the
expedition against Smaug was well started, and persuaded the
Council to attack Dol Guldur first, before he attacked Lórien.
We did, and Sauron fled. But he was always ahead of us in his
plans. I must confess that I thought he really had retreated again,
and that we might have another spell of watchful peace. But it
did not last long. Sauron decided to take the next step. He
returned at once to Mordor, and in ten years he declared himself.

"Then everything grew dark. And yet that was not his
original plan; and it was in the end a mistake. Resistance still
had somewhere where it could take counsel free from the
Shadow. How could the Ringbearer have escaped, if there had
been no Lórien or Rivendell? And those places might have fallen,
I think, if Sauron had thrown all his power against them first,
and not spent more than half of it in the assault on Gondor.

"Well, there you have it. That was my chief reason. But it
is one thing to see what needs doing, and quite another to find the
means. I was beginning to be seriously troubled about the
situation in the north when I met Thorin Oakenshield one day: in
the middle of March 2941, I think. I heard all his tale, and I
thought: 'Well, here is an enemy of Smaug at any rate! And one
worthy of help. I must do what I can. I should have thought of
Dwarves before.'

"And then there was the Shire-folk. I began to have a
warm place in my heart for them in the Long Winter, which none
of you can remember2.
They were very hard put to it then: one of
the worst pinches they have been in, dying of cold, and starving
in the dreadful dearth that followed. But that was the time to see
their courage, and their pity one for another. It was by their pity
as much as by their tough uncomplaining courage that they
survived. I wanted them still to survive. But I saw that the
Westlands were in for another very bad time again, sooner or
later, though of quite a different sort: pitiless war. To come
through that I thought they would need something more than they
now had. It is not easy to say what. Well, they would want to
know a bit more, understand a bit clearer what it was all about,
and where they stood.

"They had begun to forget: forget their own beginnings
and legends, forget what little they had known about the
greatness of the world. It was not yet gone, but it was getting
buried: the memory of the high and the perilous. But you cannot
teach that sort of thing to a whole people quickly. There was not
time. And anyway you must begin at some point, with some one
person. I dare say he was 'chosen' and I was only chosen to
choose him; but I picked out Bilbo."

"Now that is just what I want to know," said Peregrin.
"Why did you do that?"

"How would you select any one Hobbit for such a
purpose?" said Gandalf. "I had not time to sort them all out; but
I knew the Shire very well by that time, although when I met
Thorin I had been away for more than twenty years on less
pleasant business. So naturally thinking over the Hobbits that I
knew, I said to myself: 'I want a dash of the Took' (but not too
much. Master Peregrin) 'and I want a good foundation of the
stolider sort, a Baggins perhaps.' That pointed at once to Bilbo.
And I had known him once very well, almost up to his coming of
age, better than he knew me. I like him then. And now I found
that he was 'unattached' - to jump on again for of course I did
not know all this until I went back to the Shire. I learned that he
had never married. I thought that odd though I guessed why it
was; and the reason that I guessed was not that most of the
Hobbits gave me: that he had early been left very well off and his
own master. No, I guessed that he wanted to remain 'unattached'
for some reason deep down which he did not understand himself
- or would not acknowledge, for it alarmed him. He wanted, all
the same, to be free to go when the chance came, or he had made
up his courage. I remembered how he used to pester me with
questions when he was a youngster about the Hobbits that had
occasionally 'gone off,' as they said in the Shire. There were at
least two of his uncles on the Took side that had done so."

These uncles were Hildifons Took, who "went off on a journey
and never returned," and Isengar Took (the youngest of the
Old Took's twelve children), who was "said to have 'gone off
to sea' in his youth" (The Lord of the Rings Appendix C,
Family Tree of Took of Great Smials).

When Gandalf accepted Thorin's invitation to go with
him to his home in the Blue Mountains

"we actually passed through the Shire, though Thorin
would not stop long enough for that to be useful. Indeed I think it
was annoyance with his haughty disregard of the Hobbits that
first put into my head the idea of entangling him with them. As
far as he was concerned they were just food-growers who
happened to work the fields on either side of the Dwarves'
ancestral road to the Mountains."

In this earlier version Gandalf gave a long account of how,
after his visit to the Shire, he returned to Thorin and
persuaded him "to put aside his lofty designs and go secretly -
and take Bilbo with him" - which sentence is all that is said of
it in the later version (p. 337).

"At last I made up my mind, and I went back to Thorin. I
found him in conclave with some of his kinsfolk. Balin and Gloin
were there, and several others.

"'Well, what have you got to say?' Thorin asked me as
soon as I came in.

"'This first,' I answered. 'Your own ideas are those of a
king, Thorin Oakenshield; but your kingdom is gone. If it is to be
restored, which I doubt, it must be from small beginnings. Far
away here, I wonder if you fully realize the strength of a great
Dragon. But that is not all: there is a Shadow growing fast in the
world far more terrible. They will help one another.' And they
certainly would have done so, if I had not attacked Dol Guldur at
the same time. 'Open war would be quite useless; and anyway it
is impossible for you to arrange it. You will have to try
something simpler and yet bolder, indeed something desperate.'

"'You are both vague and disquieting,' said Thorin. 'Speak
more plainly!'

"'Well, for one thing,' I said, 'you will have to go on this
quest yourself, and you will have to go secretly. No messengers,
heralds, or challenges for you, Thorin Oakenshield. At most you
can take with you a few kinsmen or faithful followers. But you
will need something more, something unexpected.'

"'Name it!' said Thorin.

"'One moment!' I said. 'You hope to deal with a Dragon;
and he is not only very great, but he is now also old and very
cunning. From the beginning of your adventure you must allow
for this: his memory, and his sense of smell.'

"'Naturally,' said Thorin. 'Dwarves have had more
dealings with Dragons than most, and you are not instructing the
ignorant.'

'"Very good,' I answered; 'but your own plans did not
seem to me to consider this point. My plan is one of stealth.
Stealth.3
Smaug does not lie on his costly bed without dreams.
Thorin Oakenshield. He dreams of Dwarves! You may be sure
that he explores his hall day by day, night by night, until he is
sure that no faintest air of a Dwarf is near, before he goes to his
sleep: his half-sleep, prick-eared for the sound of - Dwarf-feet.'

'"You make your stealth sound as difficult and hopeless as
any open attack,' said Balin. 'Impossibly difficult!'

"'Yes, it is difficult,' I answered. 'But not impossibly
difficult, or I would not waste my time here. I would say
absurdly difficult. So I am going to suggest an absurd solution
to the problem. Take a Hobbit with you! Smaug has probably
never heard of Hobbits, and he has certainly never smelt them.'

'"What!' cried Gloin. 'One of those simpletons down in the
Shire? What use on earth, or under it, could he possibly be? Let
him smell as he may, he would never dare to come within
smelling distance of the nakedest dragonet new from the shell!'

'"Now, now!' I said, 'that is quite unfair. You do not know
much about the Shire-folk, Gloin. I suppose you think them
simple, because they are generous and do not haggle; and think
them timid because you never sell them any weapons. You are
mistaken. Anyway, there is one that I have my eye on as a
companion for you, Thorin. He is neat-banded and clever,
though shrewd, and far from rash. And I think he has courage.
Great courage, I guess, according to the way of his people. They
are, you might say, "brave at a pinch." You have to put these
Hobbits in a tight place before you find out what is in them.'

"'The test cannot be made,' Thorin answered. 'As far as I
have observed, they do all that they can to avoid tight places.'

"'Quite true,' I said. 'They are a very sensible people. But
this Hobbit is rather unusual. I think he could be persuaded to go
into a tight place. I believe that in his heart he really desires to -
to have, as he would put it, an adventure.'

'"Not at my expense!' said Thorin, rising and striding
about angrily. 'This is not advice, it is foolery! I fail to see what
any Hobbit good or bad, could do that would repay me for a
day's keep, even if he could be persuaded to start.'

"'Fail to see! You would fail to hear it, more likely,' I
answered. 'Hobbits move without effort more quietly than any
Dwarf in the world could manage, though his life depended on it.
They are, I suppose, the most soft-footed of all mortal kinds.
You do not seem to have observed that, at any rate, Thorin
Oakenshield, as you romped through the Shire, making a noise (I
may say) that the inhabitants could hear a mile away. When I
said that you would need stealth, I meant it: professional stealth.'

'"Professional stealth?' cried Balin, taking up my words
rather differently than I had meant them. 'Do you mean a trained
treasure-seeker? Can they still be found?'

"I hesitated. This was a new turn, and I was not sure how
to take it. 'I think so,' I said at last. 'For a reward they will go in
where you dare not, or at any rate cannot, and get what you
desire.'

"Thorin's eyes glistened as the memories of lost treasures
moved in his mind; but 'A paid thief, you mean,' he said
scornfully. 'That might be considered, if the reward was not too
high. But what has all this to do with one of those villagers?
They drink out of clay, and they cannot tell a gem from a bead of
glass.'

"'I wish you would not always speak so confidently
without knowledge,' I said sharply. 'These villagers have lived in
the Shire some fourteen hundred years, and they have learned
many things in the time. They had dealings with the Elves, and
with the Dwarves, a thousand years before Smaug came to
Erebor. None of them are wealthy as your forefathers reckoned
it, but you will find some of their dwellings have fairer things in
them than you can boast here, Thorin. The Hobbit that I have in
mind has ornaments of gold, and eats with silver tools, and
drinks wine out of shapely crystal.'

"'Ah! I see your drift at last,' said Balin. 'He is a thief,
then? That is why you recommend him?'

"At that I fear I lost my temper and my caution. This
Dwarvish conceit that no one can have or make anything 'of
value' save themselves, and that all fine things in other hands
must have been got, if not stolen, from the Dwarves at some
time, was more than I could stand at that moment. 'A thief?' I
said, laughing. 'Why yes, a professional thief, of course! How
else would a Hobbit come by a silver spoon? I will put the thief's
mark on his door, and then you will find it.' Then being angry I
got up, and I said with a warmth that surprised myself: 'You
must look for that door, Thorin Oakenshield! I am serious.' And
suddenly I felt that I was indeed in hot earnest. This queer notion
of mine was not a joke, it was right. It was desperately important
that it should be carried out. The Dwarves must bend their stiff
necks.

'"Listen to me, Durin's Folk!' I cried. 'If you persuade this
Hobbit to join you, you will succeed. If you do not, you will fail.
If you refuse even to try, then I have finished with you. You will
get no more advice or help from me until the Shadow falls on
you!'

"Thorin turned and looked at me in astonishment, as well
he might. 'Strong words!' he said. 'Very well, I will come. Some
foresight is on you, if you are not merely crazed.'

"'Good!' I said. 'But you must come with good will, not
merely in the hope of proving me a fool. You must be patient and
not easily put off, if neither the courage nor the desire for
adventure that I speak of are plain to see at first sight. He will
deny them. He will try to back out; but you must not let him.'

"'Haggling will not help him, if that is what you mean,'
said Thorin. 'I will offer him a fair reward for anything that he
recovers, and no more.'

"It was not what I meant, but it seemed useless to say so.
'There is one other thing,' I went on; 'you must make all your
plans and preparations beforehand. Get everything ready! Once
persuaded he must have no time for second thoughts. You must
go straight from the Shire, east of your quest.'

"'He sounds a very strange creature, this thief of yours,'
said a young Dwarf called Fili (Thorin's nephew, as I afterwards
learned). 'What is his name, or the one that he uses?'

"'Hobbits use their real names,' I said. 'The only one that
he has is Bilbo Baggins.'

'"What a name!' said Fili, and laughed.

"'He thinks it very respectable,' I said. 'And it fits well
enough; for he is a middle-aged bachelor, and getting a bit flabby
and fat. Food is perhaps at present his main interest. He keeps a
very good larder, I am told, and maybe more than one. At least
you will well entertained.'

"'That is enough,' said Thorin. 'If I had not given my word,
I would not come now. I am in no mood to be made a fool of.
For I am serious also. Deadly serious, and my heart is hot within
me.'

"I took no notice of this. 'Look now, Thorin,' I said, 'April
is passing and Spring is here. Make everything ready as soon as
you can. I have some business to do, but I shall be back in a
week. When I return, if all is in order, I will ride on ahead to
prepare the ground. Then we will all visit him together on the
following day.'

"And with that I took my leave, not wishing to give Thorin
more chance of second thoughts than Bilbo was to have. The rest
of the story is well known to you - from Bilbo's point of view. If
I had written the account, it would have sounded rather different.
He did not know all that went on: the care, for instance, that I
took so that the coming of a large party of Dwarves to Bywater,
off the main road and their usual beat, should not come to his
ears too soon.

"It was on the morning of Tuesday, April the 25th, 2941,
that I called to see Bilbo; and though I knew more or less what to
expect I must say that my confidence was shaken. I saw that
things would be far more difficult than I had thought. But I
persevered. Next day, Wednesday, April the 26th, I brought
Thorin and his companions to Bag End; with great difficulty so
far as Thorin was concerned - he hung back at the last. And of
course Bilbo was completely bewildered and behaved
ridiculously. Everything in fact went extremely badly for me
from the beginning; and that unfortunate business about the
'professional thief,' which the Dwarves had got firmly their
heads, only made matters worse. I was thankful that I had told
Thorin we should all stay the night at Bag End, since we should
need time to discuss ways and means. It gave me a last chance.
If Thorin had left Bag End before I could see him alone, my plan
would have been ruined."

It will be seen that some elements of this conversation were in
the latter version taken up into the argument between Gandalf
and Thorin at Bag End.

From this point the narrative in the later version
follows the earlier very closely, which is not therefore further
cited here, except for a passage at the end. In the earlier, when
Gandalf ceased speaking, Frodo records that Gimli laughed.

"It still sounds absurd," he said, "even now that all has
turned out more than well. I knew Thorin, of course; and I wish I
had been there, but I was away at the time of your first visit to
us. And I was not allowed to go on the quest: too young, they
said, though at sixty-two I thought myself fit for anything. Well,
I am glad to have heard the full tale. If it is full. I do not really
suppose that even now you are telling us all you know."

"Of course not," said Gandalf.

It was after this Meriadoc questioned Gandalf further about
Thráin's map key; and in the course of his reply (most of
which is retained in the later version, at a different point in the
narrative) Gandalf said:

It was nine years after Thráin had left his people that I
found him, and he had then been in the pits of Dol Guldur for
five years at least. I do not know how he endured so long, nor
how he had kept these things hidden through all his torments. I
think that the Dark Power had desired nothing from him except
the Ring only, and when he had taken that he troubled no further,
but just flung the broken prisoner into the pits to rave until he
died. A small oversight; but it proved fatal. Small oversights
often do."

NOTES

Gimli must at least have passed through the Shire on journeys from his
original home in the Blue Mountains (see p. 336).

There is an account of the Long Winter of 2758-9 as it affected Rohan in
Appendix A (II) to The Lord of the Rings; and the entry in the Tale of
Years mentions that "Gandalf came to the aid of the Shirefolk."

At this point a sentence in the manuscript, A, was perhaps unintentionally
omitted in the typescript, in view of Gandalf's subsequent remark about
Smaug's never having smelt a Hobbit: "Also a scent that cannot be placed,
at least not by Smaug, the enemy of Dwarves."